THEY PUT EYES ON A BUOY. SEABIRD BYCATCH RISK FELL 59%.
A pair of spinning eyes and a kite gave threatened seabirds a practical way around a deadly net.
A practical trial off Cornwall found that two simple visual deterrents cut seabird-bycatch risk by roughly two-thirds without stopping fishers from working.
WHAT HAPPENED
Fishtek Marine and the RSPB developed a Looming Eye Buoy with a spinning head and animated eye effect. Ten Cornish fishers tested it alongside a commercial bird-shaped kite for two years while cameras recorded seabird behavior. University of Exeter analysis found bycatch risk fell 59% with the buoy and 71% with the kite.
WHY THIS IS HOPESLOP
This is the best kind of Hopeslop engineering: a serious problem met by something almost absurdly simple, tested with the people who actually work at sea, and shown to make a measurable difference. The buoy looks silly. The result does not.
ORIGINAL SOURCEUniversity of ExeterRead the original report
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